The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

September 2009

Yesterday, a measly crowd of 14,468 came out on a beautiful San Diego afternoon to watch the Padres sweep the Nationals. Oh yeah, school’s back in. Usually there are a lot of school groups out there on a day like that, but maybe not so much anymore. Still, a terribly pathetic crowd.

But regardless of who was in the stands, the Padres played one great game to finish off the sweep. Sure, it was the Nationals, but a sweep is a sweep, right? May 22-24 was the last time we had a sweep, so I think it was definitely good.

Kevin Correia went 7.2 innings yesterday in probably one of his best starts as a Padre. He only allowed three hits, and that was it. He walked two and struck out five. At one point, he retired 19 batters in a row. He was amazing!! I was so glad. He hadn’t been the best in his last few starts, but he put out quite an effort yesterday, earning his 10th win. Great job, K-Cor!!

The game stayed scoreless until the bottom of the fifth. After two quick outs, Everth legged out an infield single. Eck singled. Then Adrian hit a double to drive both of them in. Kouz was intentionally walked (not exactly a good idea. Believe me, its proven). Naturally, Chase then hit a two-run double to give the Padres a 4-0 lead. Will Venable singled to drive in Chase. Remember, we got all that with two outs!! Thus, we had a five-run fifth.

In the sixth, Drew Macias singled to start off the inning. He got moved all the way over to third before Eck drove him in with a double.

In the eighth, Kouz grounded into a double play with the bases loaded, but it scored our seventh and last run. Yay Kouz!!

Edward Mujica had to rescue Correia out of a bases loaded situation in the eighth, so he went 1.1 innings. He allowed only one hit, so the Nationals had four hits on the day. I’m blaming it on our pitchers, though. They were gooooood.

We got the sweep!! We are now only 20.5 games behind. We’re playing the Dodgers this weekend. Bring it on.

This team did it again. I am sooooo proud of them!! This is just so cool, and I think we can definitely beat LA this weekend. It’s gonna be great.

I am so fired up about this team right now. The Union Tribune had an excellent article today, and it made me sooo excited about my boys. We’re not going anywhere this season, but we’re winning, and we’ve got a job to do.

Last night, we won again. We had amazing defense and pitching again. We got just enough runs to win again. Heath Bell saved the game again. Things are going great!!

Clayton Richard pitched one great game last night. He went 6.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks. He didn’t allow that run until the seventh, when Josh Bard hit a homer against him.

I love Bardo. He was the first Padres autograph I got, and he’s a catcher. I adore catchers, and he was a great one. Well, not really. But I still love him. So I really don’t mind that he hit that homer off us last night. It was only his fourth of the year for goodness sakes!! Miss you, Bardo!!

In the bottom of the second, Kouz doubled and Will Venable singled to get our first run on the board. Yay Kouz!!

In the fifth, Kouz hit a sac-fly to drive in Everth with our second run. Yay Kouz!!

In the seventh, Oscar Salazar hit a pitch-hit solo homer. He has hit three pinch-hit homers this season. Our pinch hitters have been doing extremely well in the last few games.

In the bottom of the eighth, Drew Macias drove in our last insurance run.

Heath Bell went 1-2-3 to close the game and get his 33rd save of the season.

And so, we have now won three series in a row. They will finish up the series with a 2-for-1 day today.

Now, about our mission. We’re 21.5 games behind in the NL West right now, but we’re going to help determine who comes out on top. We’re going to play spoiler.

After an off-day tomorrow, we’ll be playing the Dodgers in LA, the Giants in San Fran, and the Rockies and Diamondbacks at homer. After going to Pittsburgh, we’ll be playing the Rockies at Coors, Arizona, and then back home to play the Dodgers and Giants. How ’bout that? We are playing our division rivals a ton this month.

Since we’ve started on this winning trend, we have hurt the playoff chances of Atlanta, Florida, Chicago, and Milwaukee. These guys are fired up, and they don’t want to just finish out this season. They want to use the opportunity they’ve been given to determine who’s going to win this West.

“We’ve talked, everyone is on the same page,” said second baseman David Eckstein. “We want to make some lives miserable. We’re looking forward to those games against the West.”

I love that. “We want to make some lives miserable.” They’ve got a huge chance to do some damage here. I think the Padres are going to be the deciding factor in who wins this division. I really do.

“We’re not just playing it out,” said Heath Bell. “We get to fight. It feels good when we beat contending teams. Last year at this time, I felt like we cashed it in – let’s not lose 100 games. This year, it’s been ‘let’s win.’ “

I think it’s going to be a great month. Unlike last year, when we were trying to stay away from 100 losses, we’re looking to win this year. It’s a different mentality, and different atmosphere in this clubhouse. I’m excited.

So, game three today against the Nationals. K-Cor is pitching. He’d better do well.

Yesterday, I talked about getting a winning record for August. If we won last night, we would have our first winning month of the season. Well, we were playing the Nationals, but the boys got it done. We got the win.

Tim Stauffer started for the Padres. He was pretty good when he first came up earlier in the season, but his last few starts have not been good at all. A headline on padres.com yesterday said, “Stauffer knows he needs to go at least five innings.” Hahahahaha!!! That much was obvious. The starters need to go deep into ballgames to save the bullpen.

Thankfully, things were clicking very nicely for Stauffer last night. He threw 6.2 innings, allowing one run on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Very nice.

Livan Hernandez pitched for the Nationals. The Padres didn’t waste any time getting to him. In the bottom of the first, Everth got a bunt single. David Eckstein doubled him in, and just like that, the Padres had a 1-0 lead. Adrian struck out swinging, but Kouz doubled in Eck and we had two runs on the board.

The Nationals only got one run, in the top of the third. Stauffer was goooood.

Livan pitched all eight innings. Oscar Salazar was playing left field for the Padres. He made an incredible catch at the wall, but collided hard with the wall and hurt his knee. He was in terrible pain, but was able to walk off the field. Drew Macias came in to replace him.

Will Venable has been very, very good in the outfield. Last night a ball was hit down the right field line. He fielded it cleanly, then threw to second, where the runner was trying to take a second base. Will caught him easily. It was sooo cool!

In the bottom of the eighth, Chase Headley hit a pitch-hit homer, his 10th homer of the year. That got us an insurance run as Heath Bell came in to get his 32nd save of the year.

It was a great game, but very quick. It only took two hours and 13 minutes. There was a fairly good crowd of 19,867.

The Padres are playing again tonight. Clayton Richard is pitching for the Padres. I really hope he has a great outing, and we can get yet another series win.

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